Chapter 2876 — Surrounding Them

"Oh, hello." Zhang Naipao was a eunuch and had little interest in beautiful women; to his eyes, they were no more than pink skeletons. Lovely as Tianchan was, Zhang Naipao merely greeted her and then turned his attention back to Wei Zhao.

Tianchan had not revealed her true strength, and Zhang Naipao never imagined she was an expert at the peak of the late Heaven Stage. Since Wei Zhao had rescued her after she was injured, Zhang Naipao assumed she was nothing more than a lowly Mystic Stage cultivator.

Zhang Naipao was not much for talk, and Tianchan was only too glad of the quiet—the less said, the less chance Wei Zhao would notice anything amiss.

"Say, that spirit beast of yours—didn't you say it can communicate with other spirit beasts?" Zhang Naipao hesitated a moment, then said to Wei Zhao, "You could have it negotiate with the beasts we run into along the way—carrot and stick. If they clear the path, we all go our separate ways in peace. If they attack me, first, I can reflect the damage back; second, I can use the Bee-Devouring Divine Art to drain the stamina and true qi from their bodies and suck them dry!"

"Oh? You can drain them? I'd forgotten—then why don't we just fight our way out?" Wei Zhao thought of Zhang Naipao's Bee-Devouring Divine Art; it was truly an outrageously broken skill.

"I can, but fighting our way out the whole way isn't practical. Spirit beasts clearly have far more stamina and true qi than human cultivators. With my current strength, draining a Yellow Stage or Mystic Stage beast is fine, but a Earth Stage beast would be pushing it, and draining a Heaven Stage one would make me explode on the spot—like that last time, you nearly made me burst!" Zhang Naipao shook his head. "Besides, even for Yellow and Mystic Stage beasts, I can only manage two or three. Any more and I still can't take it!"

"That's true." Wei Zhao nodded in sudden understanding. "By the way—how about this: you drain two beasts, then use the Thorn Divine Art to wound a few more, then drain again, which doubles as healing. That way, you won't have to worry about exploding."

"That... that's actually an idea!" Zhang Naipao thought it over and agreed. "But we'll have to be careful as we go. A few beasts at a time is fine, but if we run into several at once, I won't be able to keep up."

"We can only do our best to avoid that. After all, this isn't entirely up to us..." Wei Zhao shrugged.

"So shall we set off now?" Zhang Naipao asked.

"That works..." Wei Zhao hoisted Yang Qiqi onto his back. Whether Yang Qiqi woke or not made no difference in a fight against spirit beasts, so carrying her changed nothing.

Tianchan had been listening to Wei Zhao and Zhang Naipao the whole time. When Zhang Naipao proposed setting off, she questioned him: "Doing that... I'm afraid it will draw even more spirit beasts. The beasts here seem very united. If we slaughter too many of them, we may provoke a pack to besiege us, and then it will be very difficult to leave."

"But it's the only way. You're a woman—no need to offer your opinions." Zhang Naipao was naturally displeased at being contradicted by Tianchan. In his eyes, she was a figure much like Yang Qiqi; if she weren't Wei Zhao's friend, he wouldn't even have bothered to acknowledge her.

"Heh heh..." Tianchan smiled and said nothing. In truth, Zhang Naipao was right—it was the only option available, the only way. Otherwise, it really would be hard to get from here to the teleportation array smoothly.

Though the distance was not great, the spirit beasts now seemed highly agitated, darting about in all directions. The moment the group stepped out, they would likely be immediately set upon.

By now the sky had brightened. Wei Zhao, carrying Yang Qiqi on his back, set out together with Tianchan, Zhang Naipao, and the Thunder Pig from the safe haven toward the teleportation array. At first all was well, but before they had gone far, two Yellow Stage spirit beasts fixed their eyes on them!

"Squeak squeak! (I am a spirit beast at the peak of the late Mystic Stage, and I command you to leave this place!)" The Thunder Pig squealed twice at the two Yellow Stage beasts. Though reluctant, the two Yellow Stage beasts obediently departed.

Only then did Wei Zhao remember that the Thunder Pig was a spirit beast at the peak of the late Mystic Stage, able to suppress any beast below its level.

Zhang Naipao had been very nervous. Don't be fooled by the fact that both beasts were only Yellow Stage—spirit beasts were not like humans. Some beasts were incredibly formidable at the Yellow Stage, while others might reach the Heaven Stage and still be nothing special.

But he had never expected Wei Zhao's spirit beast could suppress Yellow Stage beasts, which caught him somewhat by surprise. "I never would have thought it—this way, reaching the teleportation array will be much easier. As long as we don't run into Earth Stage or Heaven Stage beasts along the way, there'll be no problem!"

The Thunder Pig nodded smugly. In truth, it had only been testing the waters at first. The Five Evils Dragon's command had been lifted, but the Thunder Pig hadn't known whether these beasts would immediately submit to its level suppression. Now it seemed it worked.

Tianchan was also somewhat surprised and glanced at the Thunder Pig with admiration.

With the Thunder Pig along, the journey became much smoother. For one, it could sense the aura of high-tier spirit beasts and warn the group from far away, allowing them to change course and avoid traveling in a straight line, thereby minimizing encounters with high-tier beasts.

As for lower-tier beasts, the Thunder Pig paid them no mind, simply using its level-based dominance. When it encountered higher-tier beasts, it avoided them. All in all, things went fairly smoothly—except that sometimes, when things went too smoothly, one drew the envy and hatred of others... or rather, of spirit beasts!

Though the Thunder Pig could evade high-tier beasts and handle low-tier ones, all of this was detected by the sonic flying beasts specially tasked with relaying messages across the Five Evils Wilderness, and they reported it to the Five Evils Dragon at once!

Hearing the report from its spirit beast subordinates, the Five Evils Dragon was somewhat taken aback. It had earlier restored those beasts to free activity precisely in order to keep Wei Zhao and his companions here forever. But the Five Evils Dragon was arrogant and disdained to issue orders to directly kill a few human cultivators.

Now, however, the Five Evils Dragon was somewhat angered. These little things were rather clever, weren't they? But it didn't matter. This time the Five Evils Dragon was ruthless—it absolutely would not tolerate anything on its territory being beyond its control!

The Five Evils Dragon would make Wei Zhao and the others understand that it was the king here, and no amount of cleverness on their part would do them any good!

"Roar—(Send the order at once: have the Earth Stage and Heaven Stage beasts converge near those little things and surround them!)" A cold gleam flashed in the Five Evils Dragon's eyes as it prepared to issue the command to kill Wei Zhao outright.RS